Thursday, May 21, 2015

Changes in the California Teleconnect Fund (CTF)

I recently received this email from a Business partner. It references SPRINT; however, it applies to all carriers who are authorized California Teleconnect Fund (CTF) Providers. There are several thousand customers utilizing CTF now. This will have a significant impact to telecom budgets for 501(c)(3) organizations.

To all CTF Customers Participating with Sprint:

Hopefully you are aware that the California Public Utilities Commission has been conducting an extensive evaluation of the California Teleconnect Fund.  Commissioner Peterson recently posted the Proposed Decision dated April 20th, which outlines changes to the fund. 

Some key changes proposed are:

  • The elimination of wireless data services as an eligible service  (Appendix C lists the start date of this decision as FY15-16 – this July)
  • The phase down of voice services as an eligible service  (noted in Appendix C)
  • Changes to the eligibility criteria for Community Based Organizations
  • Changes to the eligibility criteria for private non-profit schools
The PUC Commissioners are set to vote on this decision as early as May 21st.  The comment window is open to the public and parties that wish to have their voice heard before the vote should do so by May 10th.  Sprint is drafting comments but we HIGHLY encourage you to provide comments as well.  To do so, please click the link to the online form below.   Once on the landing page, click the “online form” to comment. 


This link will also allow you to view the documents in the proceeding, including the Proposed Decision.  Once on the site, hit the “documents” tab in the blue area and you will see all the recorded documents for the proceeding. 
Rich Fleischer is the President of LME Consulting and provides Telecommunications consulting. Contact Rich at rich@lmeconsulting.net for information on how to reduce telecom cost and improve efficiencies.